Only a 1-2 title result will satisfy Whincup

Date: November 30 2012

Mark Fogarty

ALTHOUGH it is the beginning of a new era for Jamie Whincup as one of the all-time greats of V8 Supercars, this weekend's season-ending Sydney 500 is the end of the most enduring rivalry in the history of the sport.

Whincup enters the final two 250-kilometre races on Saturday and Sunday around the streets of Sydney Olympic Park with his fourth V8 title already sealed, a feat that ranks him among the legends of touring car racing with several years still ahead of him.

While the championship is a foregone conclusion, the event will be historically significant as the last outing of the Ford versus Holden duopoly that has sustained V8 racing for close to 20 years.

Next year's Car Of The Future initiative opens up the sport to other makes for the first time since 1994, with Nissan joining with a factory-backed, four-car team and Mercedes-Benz coming in with three privately funded entries.

Prototypes of the 2013-specification Commodore, Falcon and Nissan Altima racers will be on display and doing demonstration laps at the weekend, while a road-going Mercedes-Benz AMG E-Class will preview the look of the three-pointed star's V8 Supercar.

The Sydney 500 will be the last run for the Ford and Holden V8 racers built to essentially the same parity-driven technical rules since the late 1990s, making them among the longest-serving regulations of any motor sport series in the world.

For the past 10 seasons, the Commodores and Falcons have been essentially the same under their production-look body panels, sharing many common mechanical components. Under the Car Of The Future rules, the four different makes that have so far signed up will be represented by vehicles that are entirely identical except for their engines - which remain five-litre V8s - and their bodywork, which will also retain a strong resemblance to the road cars.

Despite having clinched the V8 crown at Winton, near Benalla in Victoria, 12 days ago, Whincup has refrained from celebrating his success, waiting until after Sunday's final race. But he is at least now conceding that with an unbeatable 317-point lead over Ford's Mark Winterbottom, he is now indisputably the champion.

''In my mind, I've won the championship,'' he said. ''There's no debating that. Although there's still a risk of losing points, it's still highly unlikely, so in my mind and everyone at TeamVodafone, we're going to run the No.1 on the door next year.''

Whincup and the team are committed to finishing their title year with more wins, although Whincup admitted he will try to help Craig Lowndes overtake Winterbottom for second in the title race.

''We do want to go out on a high,'' he said. ''We certainly don't want to drop the ball now and go into the break disappointed because we stumbled at the last minute.

''We've been going hard all year, so why not keep it up for another few days? We race to win. We have a great car and a great team, and this weekend is a big opportunity to be able to prove that again. The best thing I can do is run to plan - and that's Lowndesy out in front and me to run second to him.''

This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.